[sdiy] Thoughts on VCO's

[Florian Anwander]

Hi David

> 1. What wave forms do you seem to use most often?
If available I use the non standard waveforms the same often as the 
standard pulse / saw / tri (this is my experience e.g. from the ESQ1).

> 2. What sort of tracking do you like? Precise over a wide range? A little
> less precise (does this give a more "old school" sound)?
Though I like the "vividness" of lesse precise VCOs, I finally was 
educated by the pain of mistuned VCOs while lifesets, that a precise VCO 
is definitely necessary *for* *me*. And what the heck: my Roland SH-2 
has two VCOs which are precise over 8 octavas - there doesn't have to be 
an "either or"; it simply has to be an "and".

> 3. How many octaves should a VCO track for what applications? EG: "Switched
> on" performances of classic works versus ambient/trance/space type pieces.
At least 5 octaves reliably from 80 Hz to 2500Hz.

> 4. Are the differences between different VCO's all that important? EG: is a
> Brand "A" really any better worse than Brand "B" and what do you look for?
I look mainly for the usability of a synth. The best VCO is worthless 
with a badly designed frontpanel.

> 5. Do little imperfections in a wave form make it unsuitable for some
> applications? EG: a bit of overshoot or ringing on a square wave?
In my music there are 5% to 10% where this is relevant. For these I use 
either digital sound generation (Nord Modular) or some dedicated synth.

> 6. Is it better sonically to have a bank of VCO's that are all the same
> design or is it more versatile to have 6 different VCOs?
Until now I have in my modular setup pairs of three different VCOs.


Florian.